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How it works

From client question to answer.

The fullest example is an advice engagement: the advisor asks, Helm plans, the specialists work, and nothing reaches the client until the advisor approves it. Product, distribution and operations requests staff fewer roles and run shorter, under the same controls.

One question, end to end, with narration

An advice engagement

Six steps, one client question.

1

Helm plans

Helm · Origin · Conductor

The advisor forwards the client’s email or asks in chat. Helm reads Origin’s record, names the decision the client faces, and lays out the specialists, the waves and what is missing, ranked by importance. Conductor stops here until the advisor approves or revises the plan.

Helm’s engagement plan: the client question, the decisions, the ranked unknowns and the assignments.

2

Specialists work in waves

Beacon · Compass · Meridian, plus Alpha, Harbor or Recon when needed

Beacon pulls the data, Compass diagnoses, Meridian projects each option in dollars. Helm adds Alpha, Harbor or Recon only when the question needs them. Conductor pauses after each wave for the advisor.

Illustration of Conductor’s engagement view: waves 1 and 2 done with their certificates, wave 3 waiting for approval.

3

Helm reviews

Helm

Helm checks each wave against the acceptance criteria it set, asks for follow-ups, and writes one decision package: position, answers, best-interest basis, unknowns and a communication plan. For many questions, this is the answer.

Helm’s advisory decision package: the position, the answer with its basis, the options and what is still unknown.

4

Draft writes

Draft

When the client needs a document, Draft writes it from the specialists’ files: a proposal, email, reply or memo. Every figure is a claim with a source, and the audience, internal, client or public, decides what may appear.

Two pages of the client proposal PDF: the cover and the recommendation.

5

Sentinel reviews

Sentinel · Draft

Sentinel reviews the exact text Draft submits, matched by hash, against FINRA 2210 and the SEC Marketing Rule. Required edits go back to Draft. After three rounds without acceptance, it escalates to your compliance team.

Sentinel’s review of the same proposal: round 1 needs changes (two medium, one low), round 2 accepts.

6

The team delivers

Lookout · Manifest · Origin

Lookout builds the client story and Manifest renders the PDF, checking every client-visible number against a source. Origin logs the advisor’s approval, and the client opens a signed Client Room they can ask questions in.

The live Client Room: the approved proposal on the left and the plan assistant answering from the plan on the right.

One real run, every step

What the system did, in the order it did it.

There is no screen to watch: the team works on its own between your approvals. What you can see is the record. This is one advice engagement for a new prospect household, from the first email to an approved proposal, with the certificate each agent run produced and how long it took. Note step 10: Sentinel sent the first draft back, and nothing moved until it accepted the revision.

54 min

of agent work, start to finish

14

agent runs by 8 agents

14

execution certificates

12

advisor approvals

1

draft sent back by compliance review

  1. 01

    AdvisorForwards a new prospect’s email: “Where should my old 401(k) go, what portfolio do you recommend across all our accounts, and are we on track to retire at 60?”

  2. 02 · 2m 43s

    HelmReads the prospect’s email and plans the work: four decisions, the facts on record, the unknowns ranked by how much they matter, and who does what.

    certificate EAC-921600-20261019-151312Advisor approved

  3. 03 · 2m 25s

    OriginOpens a client record for the new household: two adults, two children, $870k investable across six accounts, and what is still missing.

    certificate EAC-656704-20261019-151537Advisor approved

  4. 04 · 3m 14s

    BeaconPulls Morningstar data and an X-Ray of every itemized holding across the accounts.

    certificate EAC-773184-20261019-151902Advisor approved

  5. 05 · 3m 44s

    CompassDiagnoses the long-term portfolio against the firm’s moderate model and replays it through 2008, 2020 and 2022.

    82.7% stocks against a 60% target; every replay falls past the 25% loss tolerance.

    certificate EAC-981504-20261019-152251

  6. 06 · 6m 05s

    HarborEvaluates the funds in each account and picks one select-list fund per sleeve.

    certificate EAC-289216-20261019-152514Advisor approved

  7. 07 · 6m 46s

    MeridianProjects whether retirement and both children’s college are funded, and recommends moving to the firm model over two tax years.

    certificate EAC-940224-20261019-153209Advisor approved

  8. 08 · 7m 34s

    HelmChecks each result against the plan, discloses where the specialists disagree, and writes the decision package.

    3 met · 2 partial, each gap stated for the client.

    certificate EAC-312128-20261019-154123Advisor approved

  9. 09 · 9m 01s

    DraftWrites the client proposal from the decision package, every figure traced to a source.

    certificate EAC-636224-20261019-155059Advisor approved

  10. 10 · 1m 07s

    SentinelReviews the proposal against FINRA 2210 and the SEC Marketing Rule.

    Needs changes: 0 high · 2 medium · 0 low. Two stock-allocation figures conflict, and a look-through weight is unexplained.

    certificate EAC-384704-20261019-155225Advisor approved

  11. 11 · 1m 54s

    HelmSends the proposal back to Draft with Sentinel’s findings and five limitations the client must be told in plain words.

    certificate EAC-736000-20261019-155438Advisor approved

  12. 12 · 8m 56s

    DraftRevises the proposal: reconciles the two figures, explains the look-through weight, and states each limitation.

    certificate EAC-680448-20261019-160354Advisor approved

  13. 13 · 1m 07s

    SentinelRe-reviews the revised proposal.

    Accept: 0 high · 0 medium · 0 low.

    certificate EAC-038848-20261019-160512Advisor approved

  14. 14 · 3m 01s

    HelmConfirms every acceptance criterion is met. Delivery waits for the advisor.

    certificate EAC-415680-20261019-160825Advisor approved

  15. 15 · 36s

    DraftApproves proposal v2, the version Sentinel accepted, as final. Packaging for the client comes next.

    certificate EAC-056192-20261019-161921

The same work, by our estimate

25–40 hours

of specialist work for a conventional team

2–3 weeks

elapsed, with the handoffs between specialists

ABC figures are measured from one demonstration engagement run on October 19, 2026: agent work time, with the advisor’s approval pauses and one retry fixed during the run left out. The conventional-team figures are our estimate, not a measurement: a team of associate, operations, analyst, planner, lead advisor, presentation and compliance roles receiving the same prospect email and producing the same analysis and proposal, stopping at advisor approval, and not counting time spent waiting for documents from the prospect.

Other teams, other sequences

Not every request needs Helm.

A product or operations request goes straight to the roles that do the work. The same gates, the same review and the same proof apply.

Advisor platforms

Position private funds to advisors.

Explain our private credit fund to advisors: what it holds, what it costs, who it fits.

Beacon → Harbor → Draft → Sentinel → Lookout

Advisor-ready fund content, reviewed against the SEC Marketing Rule.

Asset managers

Position products and develop new ones.

Should we convert our core equity mutual fund to an ETF? A third of assets sit with plan record-keepers.

Beacon → Harbor → Meridian → Draft

A solution brief: the options side by side, a conditional recommendation, and the tax and legal points framed for counsel.

Back-office service providers

Reconcile the books you run for others.

Reconcile Orion against Black Diamond for this book, and explain every break.

Recon

For consultants, portfolio accounting providers and anyone running back-office services: a severity-ranked exception report with the cause of every difference.

The work

Specialists run in waves.

Wave 1

Data

Beacon

Pulls fund, stock, X-Ray and macro data for the holdings.

Wave 2

Diagnose

Compass

Diagnoses the mix, concentration, risk and stress tests.

Wave 3

Solve

Meridian

Projects each option in dollars and recommends.

Helm’s decision package is the answer. When the client needs a document, Draft writes, Sentinel reviews until it accepts, then Lookout and Manifest deliver. Helm adds Alpha, Harbor or Recon only when the question needs them.

You stay in control

You approve. The team waits.

Concierge and Conductor keep your people in the loop: ask from chat, approve the plan, approve each wave, approve the deliverable.

Concierge

Ask from chat

The chat front end for your people. Also reachable over WhatsApp and SMS.

Conductor

Stops for you

Runs the engagement. Pauses for your approval after the plan and after each wave.

Approval gate

Nothing ships unapproved

Your approval is logged before anything is packaged or sent.

The impressive part is not the proposal. It is the pause before it.

The math

What this cycle costs you today.

The comparison that matters is not against another AI tool, but against how the work gets done today.

Today

Elapsed time
Days to weeks
Advisor hours
Several, spread across the week
Analyst support
Shared, queued, prioritized elsewhere
Compliance
A review cycle at the end, often a second one

With the team

Elapsed time
Same day
Advisor hours
Ask the question. Approve each step.
Analyst support
Every advisor has it, at the same time
Compliance
Sentinel reviews during the work. Your team reviews a finished answer.

Hours saved is the cost story. Elapsed time is the revenue story.

Bring a question of your own.

Bring a real client question, anonymized, and we will run it through the team while you watch, approvals and all.

Request a demoHow the review works